On Thursday, August 13, 2009 was the Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO) rally in Ibadan. The protest was against the government policy of deregulation of the oil sector, workers demand for 52,200 minimum wage and against various anti-people policies of the government. The rally in Ibadan was the 7thof such rallies which had also held in Kano, Lagos, Makurdi, Enugu, Asaba and Maiduguri.

Workers from various unions with different banners came out en mass despite the early morning shower and marched from the NLC secretariat at Idi-ape, to Agodi Gate, to Oje market, Bere round about and through Yemetu to the Governors office. All the leadership of various workers and student unions were actively present.

People lined up the streets to welcome the protesters, chanting anti-government songs and thanking the protesters for helping them.

At a place near Bere round about, was a big picture of governor Alao Akala of Oyo state, protesters stood there for minutes shouting thief, thief, cursing him and showering rains of abuses.

At every bus–stop people beg to be given leaflet, we sold over 158 copies of our paper (Workers Alternatives). There was even an incident of an illiterate woman hawking a fish who bought our paper and told us that although she can not read, but that she will take it home for her son to read and interpret it for her. This just show the extent of how people showed interest in what is going on. Policemen secretly bought copies of our papers behind their officers and were seeing rushing to read it.

On getting to the Governor’s office, we were told the Governor and his deputy are not in office and it was the chief of staff that received the workers. Their action was not surprising because they already knew that they are not popular among the people, nobody voted for them, they imposed themselves on the people, and to avoid the disgrace of being booed they had to run away. Even the chief of staff who received the workers was booed. It took the intervention of the labour leadership who had been their mouthpieceamong the workers begged workers to even allow him to speak and the protest letter was handed over to him.

With what happened in Ibadan, and in all places where this rally had taken place, one can simply conclude that people are tired of the present situation in Nigeria, They are fed up with all this political thieves and mafia at the helm of affairs, who are just there to protect the interest of the minority few at the expense of the majority of the people, all the political parties in the country have been discredited. The Labour Party which supposes to be the party of the labour has been left by the labour leadership for corrupt politician who used the party for their own selfish interest.

In conclusion, the only way out for Nigerian people is for the working class to take over power from these corrupt politicians who have been looting the wealth of the nation for decades, by building their own independent party. Already such a party has been formed which is the Labour Party, but consciously the Labour Leadership has refused to build the party, we call on the labour leadership to mobilize the workers into the Labour Party. It is only the Labour Party based on socialist programmes that can guaranteed qualitative health facilities, qualitative education, good housing, provide employment for people and eradicate the suffering of Nigerian people.